The Greatest Story Never Told

Are you familiar with the story of one of our most admired presidents, about he had Addison’s disease, a degenerative back problem, lied to get into the Navy, is widely believed to have cheated on his wife, and gave a 20% tax cut to the rich? Similarly, are you familiar with the amazing events in the life of Jesus as he entered adulthood? Of course not. In the former instance, these are parts of John F. Kennedy’s legacy that aren’t particularly useful to “the story”, and in the case of the historical Jesus, we don’t even know what transpired. But one can assume that likewise, the events also weren’t useful to the story.

Whether you’re marketing yourself, or marketing a product of some kind, the story becomes one of the most crucial elements of the whole plan. This is pretty well known in business circles; marketing guru Seth Godin has even changed the title of his best-selling “All Marketers are Liars” to All Marketers Tell Stories. And in literary circles, renowned British author J. G. Ballard has stated that the length and depth of the notes for his novels often vastly exceed the length of the books themselves. Why? Because there’s always the FULL story, and then there’s the interesting part. Defining the story isn’t hard, once you know which elements are important. They include things like who the hero is, obstacles and antagonists, the “all is lost” phase, and a rewarding victory.

So what’s your story? I mean, not the whole thing, just the juicy bits?

Each week for the next few months, Nick and I will be riffing on a theme from our recently published book 101 Ideas to Kick Your Ass Into Gear. This week’s theme is “Tell Your Story”